A MAN accused of being a bogus solicitor chatted with East Lancashire council bosses while on the run from detectives - after they were introduced to him by an ex-policeman who is now a councillor.

Independent Hyndburn councillor Adrian Shurmer today said he had been "duped" by self-styled legal executive Anthony Burton, who claimed he was a Manchester-based solicitor and a university law lecturer.

Coun Shurmer, who introduced Mr Burton to members of Hyndburn Council and passed on a job application for him, was yesterday questioned by fraud officers from Manchester who have been chasing Mr Burton since March..

Mr Burton met leading councillors in the chief executive's room at Hyndburn Council's offices in Eagle Street, Accrington, in June.

Coun Shurmer, a leading campaigning against "humps and bumps" traffic calming measures, helped put his name forward to the council's traffic management review board for legal consultancy work.

Bosses at the authority this week discovered that Mr Burton was a wanted man at the time - and contacted fraud squad detectives in Manchester. Police say Mr Burton is still on the run after failing to appear at Crown Court to answer charges of impersonating a solicitor. Councillor Shurmer, who represents Netherton ward in Great Harwood, has also been interviewed by the council's monitoring officer, who is investigating events leading up to Mr Burton's meeting with councillors.

Earlier this year, Coun Shurmer, told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph he had supplied Mr Burton with information to to help him with a number of legal claims.

At the time, Mr Burton said he had taken legal action against Cumbria County Council because of alleged damage caused to his BMW car by a road hump. He also said he was preparing to sue the Government in a bid to get traffic humps outlawed. Mr Burton was this week ordered to pay nearly £6,000 legal costs after he tried to sue a council in Manchester. He had claimed that his Ford Escort had been damaged by a road hump in Droylsden, but the case was dismissed after he failed to appear in court.

After his meeting with councillors, Mr Burton wrote to Coun Shurmer asking him to put his name forward for legal consultancy work. Coun Shurmer passed the letter to the council's traffic management review board, and today admitted he had described him to councillors as a solicitor. Former policeman Coun Shurmer said today: "I passed on a letter from this man and took him to a meeting because he was interested in traffic calming. He told me he was a solicitor and I had no reason to believe otherwise. But I hardly knew him. This man is not my solicitor. He never has been and I have never paid him."

"I haven't seen this man since June. I have given the police the phone number and address I had for him and that's about all I know. He is a conman and the sooner he is caught, the better."

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph has passed information about Mr Burton to Greater Manchester Police to assist with their inquiries.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.